Susannah Constantine reveals she nearly had a stroke amid 'life threatening ... trends now

Susannah Constantine has revealed she was at risk of having a stroke - but surgery saved her life.

The TV personality, 61, was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery last year after suffering from an arteriovenous malformation (AVM), a rare neurological condition that disrupts the flow of blood and oxygen to the brain.

Addressing her health in a new interview with The Times, Susannah revealed if it wasn't treated in time she could have suffered a brain haemorrhage, paralysis or stroke.

She said: 'My left arm became weaker. All the muscles were atrophied, it was withered. I got to the point where I couldn't even change gear in my car and it was very painful.'. 

Susannah added: 'It was actually the receptionist who looked at the notes, which had been sitting there over a year, and said, 'You need to see a neurosurgeon immediately.''

She went on to have life-saving surgery, explaining:  'Women are very resilient. I've learnt just to be accepting of everything and I couldn't change anything that was out of my control. 

'Being older, you're just like, "OK, it's done. On to the next thing." Things start falling off and there's nothing we can do about it. You just have to be more vigilant and take more responsibility about one's health.'

It comes after Susannah admitted that she thinks about her 'own mortality' first thing every morning following her 'life threatening neurological' scare. 

Addressing her health on Thursday's Loose Women, she said she is now 'in a good place' and is less fearful. 

Susannah explained: 'I feel fine. I had this weird neurological disorder and it was life threatening but at this age you just take these things on board.  

'When you get older you become less fearful. But, I still think about my own mortality first thing every morning.'

Laughing she continued: 'I'm cool about it. I'm in a good place. I'm a wife and mother. a housewife that has to work and that's how I like it.'

Susannah also opened up about her 30-year friendship with partner in 'fashion' Trinny Woodall and said: 'I think because we became such close friends, and we continue to be such close friends, because we are complete opposites.

'All the kinds of things that I lack in my personality or emotionally, she has and vice versa.

'So, I can't think of a single thing that we do the same. We think the same about a lot of things but you know, she'll, [and] this has just come to the top of my head, but when I go to loo, I'll use one piece of loo paper and she'll use the whole roll.'

'She's very extreme and it's like, I'm the brake and she's the acceleration. I think when you meet someone and there is that chemistry, it's about knowing to recognise that and knowing that, and going, 'Okay, that person is going to balance me out' and that's what she does for me.'

Last year, Susannah was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery as doctors told her she was 'lucky to be alive'.

Speaking after the worrying ordeal in February, Susannah said she had initially brushed off her pins and needles symptoms in her arm.

Susannah told OK! magazine that she was given stark words of warning from doctors during the health crisis.

She said: 'They said 'It's Hobson's Choice, if you don't have the operation, you've got a one in three chance of having a brain haemorrhage, being paralysed or having a stroke.

'If you do have surgery, you've got a one in ten chance of these same things happening during the operation.''

Susannah's condition is typically created surgically or appears as a result of a congenital or genetic abnormality.

It had led to bleeding into the capillaries, affecting her spinal cord and brain, and putting her at imminent risk of paralysis, a stroke, or a haemorrhage.

She said: 'I had a health scare and a pretty major operation. It was a very rare thing where I had a leak – the arteries

read more from dailymail.....